Sunday, October 6, 2013

Ride Saturday

Yesterday I decided to embark in a full day of fun away from Killeen/Fort Hood, traveling the hundred miles down to Bastrop county. Order of fun: MTB @ Buescher Sate Park, then switch shoes and bikes to the road machine and ride the Park road between Buescher and Bastrop State Park. Finally knock the dirt off and head to play some disc golf on a nearby course.

I loaded the Pivot and Orbea atop Subie and left shortly after 6 AM. The trip was shrouded in fog much of the way and I was really hoping to maybe mountain bike in some fog for the first time ! Have ridden through clouds before on the Big Island, but never mad the bike meet fog. Well I guess the bike may have met fog on the trip down (both bikes) but I was stuck in the car :( ha

Arrived around 8 and placed a tenner in the courtesy pay box and shortly was on the trail. This trail was expanded to solely attract mountain bikers and give us a choice in this area other than the ultra lengthy Rocky Hill Ranch (a favorite by the way).

Now the word of the day was HUMIDITY. There was the occasional spider and toward the end of the day I did note a nice bite right on my right hand wrist under the glove enclosure strap. Not too bad and it hasn't swollen much. This trail seems rather unique to what I usually ride on. Why ? Large stretchs of one type of trail surface, and then bingo, magically switches to something else. For example not a rock to be found for the initial three miles, then bingo, a third mile climb---and with ROCK. Another stretch has sand, another smaller marble sized pebbles, another baby smooth dirt--well you get the idea ! Not at all like our usual Centex trail that is covered start to finish with rock, root and drops and ledges. In fact the trail reminded me a lot of the trail that I had the pleasure off riding the past two years in the Mount Ida, Arkadelphia, Hot Springs areas of Arkansas.

Anyway it was a pleasurable lolipop shaped 8 mile route of which the GPS track recorded 6 or so because of operator error--lol. The non-stick, or loop, portion of the ride was the nicest with some great views. The stick portion was ok on the way back because it was downhill---so of course that means on the way up was some climbing suffer-age.

Pictures: (Hey....don't go--there is more write-up and a vid after the photos !!!!!)

So it probably took me an hour and a half or so to get around and then I switched shoes and bikes and had Subie ride behind me as I pedaled from park to park. It was cloudy so no sunscreen ! Well almost..half way through the road ride the greyness finally wore off so I stopped in some provate driveway in between parks and applied sunscreen and drank an iced cold tea and an bottle of water from the cooler that had marvelous ice chiplets folded in (wait that's for food--how does one say for drink...infused maybe ?)...anyway it was a much needed short respite because....

The warnings about the rides in between parks is true. EXPERIENCED cyclists only. Now I rode it all but here's the thing. It might only be 10 to 12 miles in length ...but the CLIMBING !! Now I know that for many of my friends at Spinervals this little 10 miles climbing might be how their entire ride routes are ! But here in Centex we are not used to it. I went to the last of my several centuries' data on RideWithGPS and the climbing I did on this park to park ten mile route was, well, wow. 800 feet in 10 miles; we do not have centuries here that get much past 1500 feet in total climbing.

I was so glad when I came to this:

A scenic over look just before the exit of Bastrop State Park ! Now amazingly it was 20 degrees cooler in that open air structure and although the parking area was loaded with cars (hikers I suppose) there was no one around and I took the opportunity to change right there !

Whew rides survived (although tis was about the time I first noticed the itchy spider bite on the wrist). And the park exit is a quarter mile from:

NIRVANA >>>>

Home to the best danged Burgers for miles around--no counties around.. :)

A burger loaded with lettuce and cram cheese, tomatoe, and fresh jalapenos on a Jalapeno Bun is always a TASTY treat...and I was ultra-good by having a side salad instead of fries. The Roadhouse is always the place to dine after a ride at Rocky Hill or a visit to the area state parks.

Just down the road 10 miles or so from the Roadhouse is Smithville, TX. Nestled on the side of the Colorado River is the Riverbend city park, complete with 18 disc golf baskets. Now fatigue was slowly starting to creep in so I decided to avoid any baskets near the river. Basically I played baskets 1 through 5, 18, and the practice basket.

Here is a shot of a basket and also a carved tree and this beautiful park :

After disc golfing, I decided, instead of jumping back on Toll 130 North to Georgetown to get home, I'd drive into South Austin a ways (near Slaughter Creek trail and also corporate hq of the contractor I work for) and visit one of the premiere disc golf supply stores in the nation. I picked up this really nice gear crunch bag and another 5 discs to toss about pretending I know what I am doing. haha.

So wild card Spinervaling Super 6 day accomplished ! A quick stop in Round Rock to eat some bbq at Smokey Moes and I was back home right around 6 PM sharp.

Yes, I know I am not supposed to be on a pedalling machine on a wild card day. HA--I am incorrigible and not cycling is not always going to happen :) Hey I can get around the rules and rent a peddling paddle boat out at the lake...haha...always away to get around rules even if I did follow them :p

A final few shots:

Yes the riding was inspired.

This is my new camera bag I got
several weeks ago at the Austin Camera Shop.
For a sweet messenger bag size it swallows much
gear !!

Oh I think the wrist will be ok. I completed a 2 hr 20 minute spin this morning and had a few yummy BLTs here at home for lunch. Now ready 4 a new work week and Spinervals 17 tomorrow after I escape the desk !

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